b-greek-digest Sunday, 15 January 1995 Volume 01 : Number 544
In this issue:
Matthew 5 To whom?
Matthew 5 -- To Whom?
Re: Win Greek 1.9
Re: Matthew 5 To whom?
Re: Matthew 5 -- To Whom?
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From: RobDK@aol.com
Date: Sat, 14 Jan 1995 04:19:31 -0500
Subject: Matthew 5 To whom?
Hi Ken,
Thanks for you input, even if you are withholding your opinion :(
You responded to my view, saying,
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I think this is a very interesting topic as well. I am not going to give
an opinion on it (to the relief of many I'm sure). I do have a follow-up
question for Rob or anyone else who wants to respond. It seems to me
that Matthew goes to great pains to show that Jesus is the Messiah,
fulfilling OT prophecies (even from texts we can't identify!). The
text seems to suggest, to me at least, that Matthew is trying to
convince Jewish readers of the validity of the Christian claim that
Jesus is the Messiah. I wouldn't think that establishing that claim
would be as important in a Gentile setting. Thus, I'd be really
interested in hearing more "exegetical discoveries" that lead to the
conclusion that Matthew's chief audience is primarily Gentile
in makeup.
Cheers,
Ken Litwak
Emeryville, CA
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You won't get any exegetical discoveries from me concluding that Matthew's
audience was primarily Gentile! I think you misunderstood my post. I am not
arguing that Matthew is writing to Gentiles. In fact, my argument only makes
sense if his intended readers are primarily Jewish. Gentile Christians would
not be questioning the church's apparent disregard for the Mosaic Law, but
Jewish believers certainly would. This was a very important matter to them.
It is to them that Matthew writes and attempts to explain what has happened
to the Mosaic Law.
I do disagree with you, however, in regard to the Jews to whom he wrote. I
tend to think Matthew wrote to Jews who were already believers in Jesus and
needed to be taught more, rather than to unbelieving Jews who needed to be
convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. Hence, I see the book as primarily
catechetical rather than evangelistic. That is to say, it was written to and
for the church.
Thanks again for your post!
Rob
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From: Chris Peiper <jcpeiper@access.digex.net>
Date: Sat, 14 Jan 1995 12:23:53 -0500
Subject: Matthew 5 -- To Whom?
I'm jumping into the middle of an ongoing discussion -- if the following has
aready been said, please forgive my ignorance.
I take Matthew's gospel as being written primarily for Jewish followers of
Jesus. If those more familiar with the criteria for dating Matthew are
correct in saying that the gospel was written about 80 CE, then the context
in which Matthew was writing was one of heightened tension within the Jewish
community. The destruction of the Temple in 70 CE forced Judaism to reform
itself around synagogal worship and the study of Torah -- what has come to
be called Rabbinic Judaism -- where previously it was primarily focussed on
the Temple. (I realize that I am painting with an extremely broad brush here.)
It was about 80 that Jewish followers of Jesus were expelled from
synagogues, and I think that Matthew reflects the tension within Judaism
just prior to this event. Matthew may indeed be trying to convince Jewish
non-followers of Jesus of Jesus' Messiahship -- the opening chapters seek to
establish Jesus as "son of Abraham, son of David" (and therefore the heir to
David's throne), *and* as the fulfilment of Hebrew Prophecy. But I think it
more likely that Matthew was writing more to the Jewish followers of Jesus
who are embroiled in that conflict in order to reaffirm their faith in Jesus
as the rightful Messiah, son of David, etc. The two verses which conclude
the beatitudes (Mt 5:11-12? -- I don't have a Bible at hand) says "Blessed
are you when they persecute you and say all manner of malicious things about
you because of me ..." (I paraphrase) is a case in point. This is clearly
directed to followers of Jesus who are being persecuted and slandered
precisely because they are followers of Jesus. The "they" who are doing the
persecuting are (probably) other Jews who do not follow Jesus -- the Gentile
world would have had little interest in the matter (with the exception of
Paul's Gentile converts).
It is easy to forget that Jesus was a good Jew all his life, as were Peter,
John, James and the other Apostles, and that (with the exception of Paul's
converts) the followers of Jesus were also Jews -- Christianity was, in
fact, a sect of Judaism until the very end of the first century. It is in
that Jewish, synagogal context that Matthew must be read.
Chris Peiper
jcpeiper@access.digex.net
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From: Dvdmoore@aol.com
Date: Sat, 14 Jan 1995 13:42:39 -0500
Subject: Re: Win Greek 1.9
To D. Anthony Storm
dbs@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu:
My copy of WinGreek 1.9 works just fine - at least for Greek - with all
the accents and diacritical marks. I'm not familiar with your word processor
software (I use it with Ami Pro). Have you tried it with Windows Write? It
should work alright there if it's installed correctly. If it doesn't work
with Windows Write, you should probably reinstall.
Hope this may be helpful,
David Moore
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From: Dvdmoore@aol.com
Date: Sat, 14 Jan 1995 22:29:13 -0500
Subject: Re: Matthew 5 To whom?
Ken Litwak wrote:
>>It seems to me
>>that Matthew goes to great pains to show that Jesus is the Messiah,
>>fulfilling OT prophecies (even from texts we can't identify!). The
>>text seems to suggest, to me at least, that Matthew is trying to
>>convince Jewish readers of the validity of the Christian claim that
>>Jesus is the Messiah. I wouldn't think that establishing that claim
>>would be as important in a Gentile setting.
RobDK@aol.com (Rob) answered:
>In fact, my argument only makes
>sense if his intended readers are primarily Jewish. Gentile Christians
would
>not be questioning the church's apparent disregard for the Mosaic Law, but
>Jewish believers certainly would. This was a very important matter to them.
>It is to them that Matthew writes and attempts to explain what has happened
>to the Mosaic Law.
In thinking about what Jesus meant by "fulfill" (PLHRWSAI), it is good
to keep in mind that He is talking about the Law *and* the Prophets (See D.
Guthrie, _NT Theo._, pp. 676-7). Although Jesus' reference to the Law and
the Prophets could be a general reference to all of Scripture, it seems
significant to me that He did not just say "the Law" but said "the Law or the
Prophets." The inclusion of the latter gives a definite color to the word
"fulfill," even though the Prophets do include teaching of a moral nature. So
if Matthew was written primarily for Jewish believers, it appears that the
potential believer is also in mind; and even to say "*primarily* for . . .
believers" might be questioned.
David L. Moore
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From: Kenneth Litwak <kenneth@sybase.com>
Date: Sat, 14 Jan 95 21:38:47 PST
Subject: Re: Matthew 5 -- To Whom?
Chris and Others,
I never intended for this discussion to focus on whether Matthew was
writing to Christian or non-Christian Jews. I interpreted the post I
responded to to be saying that he wrote for Gentiles. Since the author of
the post corrected that misunderstanding, I withdraw my comment all
together, and we can refocus on the issue of the law in Mt 5 I hope.
Ken Litwak
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End of b-greek-digest V1 #544
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